Editing Prussian three-class franchise (section)

== Effects ==
{{seealso|Prussian House of Representatives#Composition}}
[[File:Provinces of Prussia (1914).svg|thumb|383x383px|Prussia (blue-shaded areas) in 1914.]]
The electoral procedure combined with the use of classes in the constituencies strongly favored conservatives. In 1913 the [[German Conservative Party]] received 14.8% of the primary electorate votes but won 149 of the 443 seats (33.6%) in the Prussian House of Representatives; the [[Free Conservative Party]] won 53 seats (12%) with only 2% of the primary electorate votes. The [[Social Democratic Party of Germany]] (SPD) on the other hand won only 10 seats (2.3%) in 1913 with 28.4% of the voters. Measured in terms of share of the vote, the [[Centre Party (Germany)|Centre Party]], [[National Liberal Party (Germany)|National Liberal Party]] and parties of the liberal left tended to be favored by the electoral law, although by no means to the same extent as the conservatives. Voting by party was recorded statistically in elections only from 1898 onward and was determined by the electoral officer entering the presumed political orientation of each person who received a vote in the primary election. Because of this, vote shares are only approximations. It should also be noted that the discrepancy between vote shares and mandate shares among the Conservatives and Free Conservatives resulted not only from the electoral law itself, but also from the fact that voter turnout was usually particularly low in their strongholds.

Compared to the voting rights for the German Reichstag, those for the Prussian House of Representatives were especially favorable for the Conservatives, Free Conservatives and National Liberals. It was disadvantageous for Poles (the Polish National Democratic Party represented the Polish minority in Germany)<ref>{{Cite book |last=Stienen |first=Daniel Benedikt |title=Verkauftes Vaterland - Die moralische Ökonomie des Bodenmarktes im östlichen Preußen 1886–1914 |publisher=Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht |year=2021 |isbn=9783647367651 |location=Göttingen |pages=97 |language=de |trans-title=The Fatherland Sold - The Moral Economy of the Land Market in Eastern Prussia 1886–1914}}</ref> and especially the SPD.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Haar |first=Ingo |url={{Google books|38twEAAAQBAJ |page=448|plainurl=yes}} |title=Jüdische Migration und Diversität in Wien und Berlin 1667/71-1918 |publisher=Wallstein Verlag |year=2022 |isbn=9783835347007 |location=Göttingen |pages=448 |language=de |trans-title=Jewish Migration and Diversity in Vienna and Berlin 1667/71-1918}}</ref> In 1903 the SPD won 32 of the 236 Prussian seats in the Reichstag, but in the same year none of the 433 seats in the election to the Prussian House of Representatives.

Voter turnout in all three classes was far below that in Reichstag elections. In 1913 it was 32.7% (in 1898 only 18.4%), whereas in the 1912 Reichstag election Prussian turnout was 84.5%. The possible reasons are many: the election was always held on a weekday and, unlike in a Reichstag election, voting could take several hours. In the countryside a long trek to a neighboring municipality may have been necessary, whereas in Reichstag elections there was always at least one polling station in each municipality. The lack of secrecy in voting and thus possible negative consequences from casting a vote could also deter eligible voters. For voters in the third class, the relatively low importance of their votes could also have played a role. In many cases, the importance of the primary election was also diminished by the fact that the primary constituency or the entire constituency was politically without controversy and the winner already all but determined before the voting. Voter turnout was particularly low in the third class, where it was only 29.9% statewide in 1913, compared to 41.9% in the second class and 51.4% in the first class. Voter turnout was particularly high in areas with a large Polish population and in Berlin, while in the rest of Prussia the already low average figure was in some cases considerably undercut. Turnout was higher in cities than in rural areas. The historian Thomas Kühne, a specialist in the three-class electoral system, speaks of the "economy of abstention". Voters, he said, did not stay away from the polls in protest against the restrictive electoral law, but because they could agree in advance who would vote – and it was sufficient if only a few cast ballots.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kühne |first=Thomas |title=Dreiklassenwahlrecht und Wahlkultur in Preußen 1867–1914. Landtagswahlen zwischen korporativer Tradition und politischem Massenmarkt |publisher=Droste |year=1994 |location=Düsseldorf |pages=178–190 |language=de |trans-title=Three-Class Suffrage and Electoral Culture in Prussia 1867–1914. State Elections between Corporative Tradition and Political Mass Market}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable sortable float-right" style="text-align:right"
|+ Average tax revenue per eligible voter (in gold marks) in the Prussian provinces by tax division (1898)<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Ritter |first=Gerhard A. |title=Wahlgeschichtliches Arbeitsbuch: Materialien zur Statistik des Kaiserreichs 1871–1918 |publisher=Verlag C. H. Beck |year=1980 |isbn=3-406-07610-6 |location=Munich |language=de |trans-title=Electoral History Workbook: Materials on Statistics of the German Empire 1871–1918}}</ref>
! Province
! First class
! Second class
! Third class
! Total
|-
| style="text-align:left" |[[East Prussia]]
|485
|139
|15
|42
|-
| style="text-align:left" |[[West Prussia]]
|559
|147
|17
|48
|-
| style="text-align:left" |City district [[Berlin]]
|2,739
|445
|44
|124
|-
| style="text-align:left" |[[Province of Brandenburg|Brandenburg]]
|635
|168
|21
|56
|-
| style="text-align:left" |[[Province of Pomerania (1815–1945)|Pomerania]]
|608
|147
|16
|46
|-
| style="text-align:left" |[[Province of Posen|Posen]]
|395
|83
|11
|32
|-
| style="text-align:left" |[[Province of Silesia|Silesia]]
|546
|113
|15
|45
|-
| style="text-align:left" |[[Province of Saxony|Saxony]]
|724
|181
|21
|59
|-
| style="text-align:left" |[[Province of Schleswig-Holstein|Schleswig-Holstein]]
|654
|208
|23
|63
|-
| style="text-align:left" |[[Province of Hanover|Hanover]]
|469
|149
|18
|49
|-
| style="text-align:left" |[[Province of Westphalia|Westphalia]]
|662
|146
|22
|59
|-
| style="text-align:left" |[[Province of Hesse-Nassau|Hesse-Nassau]]
|589
|163
|27
|72
|-
| style="text-align:left" |[[Rhine Province]]
|733
|170
|24
|67
|-
| style="text-align:left" |[[Province of Hohenzollern]]
|61
|24
|6
|14
|- style="font-weight:bold"
| style="text-align:left" |Total Prussia
|671
|165
|21
|59
|}
Since tax revenues in Prussia varied greatly from region to region, the cutoffs for voting in the first or second class also varied considerably from province to province and even between the various electoral districts of a larger municipality. In the Prussian state election of 1898, an average of 1,361 marks had to be paid in direct taxes in the city and only 343 marks in the countryside to qualify to vote in the first class.<ref name=":0" /> The average tax paid by a Berlin voter in the second class in the 1898 state election was 445 marks, while that of a corresponding voter in the [[Province of Hohenzollern]], a part of Prussia in far southern Germany, was 24 marks. The differences were even more pronounced when comparing different primary election districts. In 29 particularly high-tax Berlin electoral districts, voters were classed in the third class up to a tax revenue of 3,000 marks per year, while in four low-tax districts, a tax revenue of 100 marks per year was sufficient to qualify for the first class.<ref name=":0" /> In some cases, even high-ranking Prussian state officials had to vote in the third class. Of ten Prussian state ministers, six, including Prussian Prime Minister [[Botho zu Eulenburg]] and Reich Chancellor and Prussian Minister [[Leo von Caprivi]], voted in the third class in the Prussian state election of 1893. Three other ministers voted in the second class while the tenth minister, the Minister of War, was ineligible to vote as an active military man.<ref name=":0" />